Today we’re taking a look at an awesome scene composed by Swedish 3D artist Robin "Reed" Rumpunen. Creating this composition was the first time that Robin had used CRYENGINE and we were blown away by the results. Read on to find out how he did it.

What inspired you to make this scene?

The idea started on s late September night. I was scrolling through my list of games and trying to find one that would fill my needs. I kept looking, scrolling down the list until I stumbled upon a game I had not played in a long time. The game? Ryse: Son of Rome. The instant I started playing I was back in Rome. Astonished by the visuals I felt the need to make something special. It was at that moment I started planning a scene, a scene which would take me on an incredible journey. A journey I would like to call Domus by the Colosseum.

How did you go about making the scene?

Still carrying the feeling of Ryse inside me, I thought I should attempt creating the environment inside of the same engine used by the Ryse team; CRYENGINE. Never having touched the engine before, I thought to myself that this would make an interesting learning experience. Having a background with other game engines, I am surprised to say that the transition was smooth. The interface was straight forward and with a little tweaking I got engine working exactly the way I wanted it. If by any chance I was experiencing problems, I turned to the forums and in a matter of minutes I had loads of answers to help me better understand and fix the problem.

Were there any features of CRYENGINE that particularly stood out to you?

One thing I was really excited to try out was CRYENGINE’s Global Illumination. I experimented a lot with it, and the experience, as well as the quick feedback, was very good. The idea of not baking lighting makes it very fast for expressing moods while experimenting with light and working with it was simply a wonderful experience. When working with a project where you begin with only a vague idea of what to create you need two things; iteration speed and feedback. With CRYENGINE it is easy to make big and fast changes rapidly, thanks to the way CRYENGINE handles layers and meshes in the layer stack. Keeping assets organized is a key element in making sure you are working as productively and efficiently as you can. Making sure you are spending less time looking for that one decal, when you can spend more time actually creating! When I got to a point where I did not really know where to improve, or simply wanted some fresh eyes to take a look at the project, I would show my work in progress shots to the Discord community: Dinusty. The server is run with, and by, industry developers looking to help artists and also has members who just want to have a great time making art! Anyone can join, and they helped me so much. It’s a great, growing community for any artists out there.

How would you rate the overall experience of using CRYENGINE as an artist, especially as it was new to you at the start of the project?

Overall, I feel like Crytek has made great software for any artist looking to try out a great, solid game engine. With quick, organized, and easy to follow tutorials, I feel like CRYENGINE is really on the up! The experience has been a very good one, and I am looking forward to seeing more content being made with this incredible software Crytek has developed.